The Time Before Q4
Sep 01, 2026
Prepare Your Affiliate Strategy for the Holidays
*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases
Quick Answer
September is perfect for building the lists we’ll want shoppers finding in November and December, getting holiday content onto Pinterest and YouTube early enough to give it time to index, and making sure we have a well thought out, diversified plan. By the time the serious holiday shopping starts, we aren’t scrambling to build everything from scratch.
We have about 30 days until Q4, and this is the time to get ahead of the holiday rush while we still have a little breathing room.
September is perfect for building the lists we’ll want shoppers finding in November and December, getting holiday content onto Pinterest and YouTube early enough to give it time to index, and making sure we have a well thought out, diversified plan. Please don’t put all your eggs in one basket here. Make sure you have multiple ways and places to monetize.
Because once Q4 gets rolling, who has time for this?
When Should You Build Your Holiday Product Lists?
Amazon, Walmart and Benable are three different places to build highly targeted product lists. Instead of waiting until November and suddenly deciding we need a bunch of Christmas gift guides, we can start creating them now without necessarily making them look like Christmas gift guides.
My pickleball list on Amazon (this does lead to my affiliate list) is a good example. Today, it’s simply a useful collection of pickleball finds. Come December, someone trying to buy for a mom who loves pickleball could find it and think, Oh, she would love this. And this. And this. That’s basically a gift guide in disguise.
What Makes a Good List?
A good list isn’t 50 random products thrown together because they all contain the word “pickleball.” It should feel curated. Think about the people who are hard to buy for and the niches you already know well. The golfer, gardener, frequent traveler, new homeowner, dog lover, home cook, college student or woman who works from home can each become a really useful list. When I build lists, I generally have a real person in mind or at least the idea of one (an avatar?).
If you’re building a list for a gardener, there are the obvious gardening tools, but there might also be garden clogs, a harvest basket, a great sun hat, hand-care products, a kneeling pad, seeds or something funny for the garden. Your ideas, experiences and opinions are what make your list unique, not something we would find on Buzzfeed. Those less-obvious finds are often what make someone stop and think, I never would have thought of that.
The more specific and targeted the list is, the more useful it will be to that frazzled midnight holiday shopper. If you are having a hard time coming up with ideas every Tuesday on Instagram I post 10 interesting trending topics to get your brain going. You can see today’s post here:
How Do You Get People to Find Your Holiday Lists?
As we have discussed many times here on The Offsite Playbook, Pinterest and YouTube take TIME. They’re traffic drivers to the Amazon, Walmart and Benable lists we’re building.
If you’re going to create a Pin for 15 Christmas Gifts for Pickleball Players or a YouTube video about Gifts for the Traveler Who Has Everything, September is the time to get it out there. Give Pinterest and YouTube time to index that content and understand what it’s about before holiday searches really start ramping up.
The list itself doesn’t even have to be called a Christmas gift guide. Favorite Pickleball Finds are evergreen, meaning they work all year long. You just theme the Pinterest Pin around whatever holiday it is. The list stays the same all year. You can make a pin for Pickleball gifts for Mom, pickleball gifts under $25, gifts for new pickleball players, stocking stuffers for pickleball lovers—those can all lead back to the same thoughtfully curated destination. Just make sure they really are under $25 or whatever your promise is!
In September we build, in Q4 we capitalize.
November gets busy fast. There are deals to share, products going out of stock, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, new trends and opportunities we don’t even know about yet.
September gives us room to do the foundational work without all of that noise. Build the Amazon lists. Build the Walmart lists. Build the Benable lists. Think about the niches that could quietly become fantastic holiday gift guides later. Then start publishing the holiday-focused Pinterest and YouTube content that will help people find them.
By the time the serious holiday shopping starts, we aren’t scrambling to build everything from scratch. We can update what’s already there, add the great deals, replace products that sell out and put more energy behind the things that are getting traction.
We have 30 days before Q4.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should Amazon Influencers start preparing for Q4?
We have about 30 days until Q4, and this is the time to get ahead of the holiday rush while we still have a little breathing room. September gives us room to do the foundational work without all of that noise.
What makes a good product list?
A good list isn’t 50 random products thrown together because they all contain the word “pickleball.” It should feel curated.
Does a holiday list have to be called a gift guide?
The list itself doesn’t even have to be called a Christmas gift guide. Favorite Pickleball Finds are evergreen, meaning they work all year long. You just theme the Pinterest Pin around whatever holiday it is.
Why post holiday content on Pinterest and YouTube in September?
Give Pinterest and YouTube time to index that content and understand what it’s about before holiday searches really start ramping up.
Struggling with trying to figure out the Amazon Influencer Program? After reading this guide, you'll know what to film next and have a manageable plan for getting to your first 100 videos.
About Barb | Founder of Storefront Launch
Barb was working with brands before “content creator” was a job title.
Back in 2008, she helped develop branded Twitter parties: live, hashtag-based conversations that brought companies and consumers together. She helped turn those conversations into something brands could buy, then spent years pitching campaigns, recruiting paid bloggers, organizing events, and teaching other women how to use social media for business.
She was part of the original wave of “mommy bloggers” (because apparently women building successful online businesses needed a cute little nickname). Her work included brand ambassador roles with Disney, Kraft, Verizon, and GMC.
Today, Barb brings that experience—and a master’s degree in education—to Storefront Launch. She helps women make sense of Amazon Influencer, Walmart Creator, and affiliate marketing, with practical ways to earn from the content they’re already creating. Less hype. More “okay, here’s how you actually do it.” Because, to loosely quote Lin-Manuel Miranda, she was “in the room where it happen(ed).”
